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Thursday, September 18, 2014

Like a shadow, bugs follows us wherever we go...

I'm not sure what caught my attention more, the title of
the news article being "No matter how much you scrub, your home is covered in germs" or the fact that the opening sentence was "Sorry, clean
freaks" which of course is the "handle" Lee and I took when
starting the Talk Clean to Me blog.
Either way, the topic is one that had to be shared.

In my book review for "The Germ Code" I
introduced the concept of microbiomes and the fact that the bugs that live on
us tell the story of where we live or had lived. The study at the heart of this article helps
to solidify this concept. The
researchers studied seven (7) families in three (3) states and found that they
could easily match up who lived where using their "microscopic
roommates". Even as babies we
start picking up microbes on the skin, nose and gut that will make up living
communities that we coexist with throughout life. In this day and age, the mention of
"bug" generally leads us to immediately assume it is one that will
cause disease, but the truth is many of these bugs play a critical role in
digestion and our immune systems. They
may also directly contribute to disease and even weight gain... finally I have
an excuse!

In essence the bugs we live with make up our home's
immune system. Certainly, bad bugs will
show up from time to time, but perhaps instead of obsessing over killing bugs
in our homes to stop the spread of infection we need to consider that many of
these are "good" bugs and if we cultivate these it may lead to better
health.

The 7 households within the study comprised of 15 adults,
3 children, 3 dogs and a cat and for 6 weeks the participants collected samples
by swabbing hands, feet, noses and paws of everyone in their households as well
as commonly touched surfaces such as doorknobs, light switches, floors and
countertops. The findings showed that
different homes harboured different populations of bugs and that these
populations closely matched the microbiomes of the residents.

Most surprising was how quickly the bugs settled in. Reminiscent of Pigpen's trailing cloud of
dust in the Peanuts comic strip, wherever the family moved so too did their
bugs. In fact, it only took about a day
for the microbes in a new location to closely resemble those of the old
one. This phenomenon was seen even with
a family who moved from a hotel room to a house! Having just spent 3 nights in a hotel, who's
bugs did I sleep with the first night? Should I call room 442 tomorrow morning
and apologize for leaving my bugs behind?

While the study showed our personal microbiome closely
matches the bugs found in our homes, it was also found that if a family member
leaves home for an extended period of time the microbiome of the home
changes. Surprisingly, when one of the study
participants left for a 3-day trip, the researchers found that the cocktail of
bugs that were part of the normal flora of the house changed. In fact, they lost the contribution of bugs
of the travelling person. It brings the
concept of marking one's territory to a whole new level!

The key take home message
I think is that bugs live on us and all around us. We should not despair, but learn to
cohabitate and be smart in our cleaning and disinfection practices. Certainly we cannot underestimate the
importance of both hand hygiene and cleaning and disinfection when it comes to
our health. However, when it comes to cleaning and disinfection
rather than feeling the need to annihilate every bug in our homes, perhaps we
need to be more targeted in our approach
and only focus on the surfaces such as bathrooms and kitchens where there is a
greater likelihood of disease causing bugs living.